Fleeing Fright
by Levana Fay
Summary: A chase nearly ends in a nightmare for Gibbs.


Fleeing fright

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Rating: K

Summary: A chase nearly ends in a nightmare for Gibbs.

Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs ducked around a corner and sped down the alleyway. The kid in front of him wasn't going to get away, not now he had him in his sights. He jumped over all of the trash littering the floor, the afternoon sun shedding more than enough light down the alley, and he dodged all of the falling boxes and bins that the boy knocked over in his path. He grunted and gritted his teeth as a pipe fell into his path before he could move, hitting his shin, causing him to stumble. He righted himself quickly and rejoined the chase, knowing the kid couldn't have gotten very far ahead of him. He took off down a fork in the alley and gazed at the large wire fence blocking his way. Perfect. He threw himself at it, knowing there was nowhere else the boy could have gone, climbing expertly and landing on the other side gracefully, giving his knees a wake-up call. Looking up as he landed, he saw the kid disappear around a corner and he sped towards him, closing the gap swiftly. The alley led in to the back area of a restaurant, where the bins were filled with kitchen waste. The smell was awful, rotting scraps of food mixing with the smell of urine to give off a terrible odour. Jethro stopped breathing as he passed, trying to prevent the urge to vomit from making itself known. A flock of pigeons flew up around as he ran through them, disturbing their scavenging in the bins and causing them to fly upwards in a flurry, temporarily blinding him. This kid was lucky, but he wouldn't be when he caught up with him!

Jethro drew in a deep breath of 'fresh air' once he was past the food shops and turned down the next alley. He was oozing annoyance by the time he looked down the next fork, realising that he couldn't see the boy. He sighed in frustration, this was not happening! He desperately took off down one alley, hoping he had chosen the right one. When he ran into a dead end, he cursed his bad judgement and turned around, sprinting as fast as his legs would allow back to the fork and down the other alley. The distant sound of new and expensive shoes hitting concrete floated to him and he pushed himself harder, wheezing with the effort of catching up with the stupid kid. _I'm too old for this_.

He briefly wished Tony or Ziva had been with him instead of Jenny. They could have chased the kid as fast as him and they could have split up at the last fork and caught him. Instead Jenny had accompanied him and, although she could walk very quickly in those heels, she couldn't chase someone down or climb fences. She had taken to patrolling the roadside, hoping to catch him if he came out before Gibbs caught him. She hadn't wanted to risk her skirt on a fence or wall either, since she had been confident that Jethro could catch him.

Gibbs was seeing a pretty shade of red by the time he caught sight of the little demon again. His breath came in short gasps but that wasn't the reason he was seeing red. He was angry, very angry. This kid had given him the slip too many times in the last few minutes, more than last year's suspects put together. It was just not on. This kid was going down and then he wouldn't be seeing daylight for a very long time. He smiled as he thought about that. Only bread and water until the kid was 50. That sounded really good right about now. He ducked around a corner and took the next turn sprinting, nearly walking up the wall as his momentum took him right to the edge of the small passage and around. He could see the emblem on the back of the kid's coat now. He grinned, he was so close. Suddenly the alley ended and they flew out into the street, Gibbs so close he could hear the kids breathing and the sound of car horns…

He looked around wildly as the kid ran right out into the middle of the busy road, the rush hour traffic whizzing past, horns blaring at the boy nearly in the middle. Gibbs didn't hesitate; he threw himself after him, hoping to get at him before a vehicle did. Just then a horn blew and Gibbs knew it was a truck, heading right at the boy in front of him. Horror gripped his heart and time seemed to slow as he threw everything he had into his legs, the muscles pumping and propelling him forwards. He bent low and aimed himself at the kid, who had frozen in the path of the truck, terror written clearly on his face. Gibbs launched himself at him when he was close enough, his arms wrapping around the kid's small frame, his momentum throwing them both out of the path of the truck, Gibbs rolling over the rest of the road and on to the curb, the boy still in his arms.

Jethro gasped raggedly, the exertion and nerves coming to the forefront, and he looked down at the boy in his arms as the luminous blue eyes stared back, filling with tears as the terror took hold and the tears rolled down his cheeks. Gibbs held the boy tighter and dropped a soothing kiss to his young sons' forehead, as his little body shook; the tremors and sobs wracking his tiny body.

"Daddy, I'm sowwy…" Jethro shushed him and sat up, holding his son close to him, reeling from the near miss from the truck. If only he had gotten that licence plate, that guy didn't even hit the brakes!

"Jethro!! Chris! Oh, my god…" Jenny ran towards them, her shoes dangling from her hands as they had prevented her from running as fast as she wanted to. As soon as she reached them, she dropped them and then lifted her five year old son from Gibbs' grasp and hugged him tight to her body, stroking his hair and sobbing. Jethro quickly got up from the pavement and took his family into his arms, watching the cars speeding past, thanking his lucky stars that Chris had survived, while cursing the day his son decided he liked chasing butterflies.


End file.
